1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a management system provided with a management apparatus, managed apparatus, a management method in this management system, and a management program operated by the managed apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
There has been widespread use of a photocopier and MFP (Multi-Function Peripheral) provided with a copying function, facsimile function, printer function and scanner function (hereinafter collectively referred to as “image forming apparatus). This image forming apparatus is characterized by a high level of availability factor, a great number of consumable parts and requirements for periodic maintenance and inspection. Thus, when installing an image forming apparatus at a user-specified location, a service person connects the image forming apparatus with the management apparatus via the communications network and registers the image forming apparatus in the management apparatus. After that, the management apparatus obtains management information on the number of prints, frequency of use, maintenance history and history on the replacement of various parts from the image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus is managed based on this management information.
The conventional method of communications between an image forming apparatus and management apparatus having been used so far includes the technique wherein the image forming apparatus and management apparatus are connected via the telephone line or FAX line, and a data signal is converted via the modem and is sent and received via the analog telephone line. In another technique includes in this conventional method, a data signal is sent and received via the digital telephone line such as ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) (hereinafter referred to as “telephone line system”) (e.g., see U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,157).
In a further technique having been used, an image forming apparatus and management apparatus are connected via the communications network such as the Internet, and an electronic mail with data described thereon is packetized and is sent and received via a mail server (hereinafter referred to as “electronic mail system”) (see the Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-55796).
A proposal has also been made of a system (hereinafter referred to as “HTTP system”) for writing/reading the data from each of the management apparatus and image forming apparatus, using the HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) server such as WebDAV (Distributed Authoring and Versioning protocol for the WWW) server. A further proposal is the image forming apparatus that allows transmission and reception of data according to the communications method selected from among a plurality of communications methods.
As described above, there are various forms of communications method between the image forming apparatus and management apparatus, and the method of connection differs according to each communications method. This takes much time for a service person to register the image forming apparatus in the management apparatus at the user (hereinafter referred to as “initial registration”).
To put it another way, in the telephone line system, a registration request notice is sent from the image forming apparatus when the image forming apparatus and management apparatus are connected over the telephone line. Then the registration permission notice can be received immediately from the management apparatus. This permits immediate termination of initial registration. In the electronic mail system, however, a mail server is located between the image forming apparatus and management apparatus. If a registration request notice mail is sent from the image forming apparatus, there is no knowing when a registration permission notice mail can be received from the management apparatus. This requires a lot of initial registration time. At the same time, an HTTP server is located between the image forming apparatus and management apparatus in the case of HTTP system. Thus, even if the image forming apparatus has written a registration request notice into the HTTP server, there is no knowing when the management apparatus writes the registration permission notice. This also takes a lot of time in initial registration.
The initial registration procedure differs according to the communications method, and the time of registration termination also different. This leads to a complicated procedure for initial registration operation.
The aforementioned problem arises not only in the case of managing the image forming apparatus, but also in any of the managed apparatuses in the same manner wherein the operation is managed by registration into the management apparatus.
The object of the present invention is to solve the aforementioned problems and to provide a management system, management method and management program capable of ensuring quick and simple initial registration, independently of any communications method used.